Former PM Imran Khan to address Jalsa in Peshawar today

Islamabad, Apr 13: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be holding a 'Jalsa' on Wednesday, demanding immediate elections in Pakistan to elect the Prime Minister.

"On Wednesday I will be holding a jalsa in Peshawar after Isha - my first jalsa after being removed through a foreign- instigated regime change. I want all our people to come, as Pakistan was created as an independent, sovereign state not as a puppet state of foreign powers," tweeted Imra Khan.

"We are demanding immediate elections as that is the only way forward to let the people decide, through fair & free elections, whom they want as their prime minister," he added.

Eight social media activists of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf have been arrested for allegedly running a vilification campaign against Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, news agency PTI reported.

Khan was ousted as the prime minister after the joint opposition's no-confidence motion against him succeeded on March 8.

Khan has alleged that Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the Department of State was involved in the 'foreign conspiracy' to topple his government.

Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a passionate speech in Parliament on Saturday also echoed Khan's allegations of regime change being plotted by the US in Pakistan.

He said the US national security adviser telephoned his Pakistani counterpart and "categorically asked us not to proceed with the Russia tour" of Prime Minister Khan in February.

In his first comments since ouster, Khan in a tweet said, "Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change.